Cycle News

Rea Heads To Yamaha T he first indications that Jona- than Rea could really leave the Kawasaki Racing Team squad he won six World Championships with came to light several weeks ago. At first, it was a kind of story that just seemed a good "fit." After all, Yamaha needed a rider fast enough to replace their soon- to-be-gone miracle man, Toprak Razgatlioglu, who had already de- cided to make a shocking move to BMW long ago. But the Rea/Yamaha story gathered momentum, and it was clear it was a serious prospect, even though Rea had a clear contract to remain at Kawasaki in 2024. Toprak going to BMW was a surprise at first, but it made sense as Toprak was unable to beat Bautista often enough on his Yamaha last season and especially this season. Rea leaving Kawasaki is also perfectly logical when you con- sider he went from world cham- pion in 2020 to being beaten by a Yamaha rider in 2021, to beaten by both a Ducati rider and a Yamaha rider in 2022. He is cur- rently third but 176 points behind Bautista and 102 points behind Razgatlioglu. Unable to get a factory Ducati now and with the career clock ticking at 36 years of age, Rea has opted to be a factory rider for a third Japanese manufacturer in WorldSBK, even though he had a year left on his Kawasaki contract. People who think Rea would simply not change now after all the years he spent becoming a seemingly immovable part of the overall KRT family-style squad (the Provec Team owners are two brothers and their cousin, after all) have short memories. When Rea left Honda at the end of the 2014 season, he had been a six-year fixture in another official team with another literal family at its base—Ten Kate— and many also did not believe he would really move on from there. But he did leave the incredibly close bonds he had inside the Ten Kate team and duly won the first of his six WorldSBK titles straight away. He found a Ninja ZX-10R (and later, the ZX-10RR) inside a support system capable of winning a record number of races (119 so far, with only 15 of those on his old Honda) and all those six dominant titles for Kawasaki. Rea even touched on the family feel inside the KRT squad with the comments he made in the official leaving press release from Kawasaki. "I want to thank everyone at KMC and KRT for believing in me and giving me the opportunity to prove myself at the highest level. I have learned and grown so much as a person and a rider since the first day throwing my leg over the factory Ninja ZX-10R Superbike. Winning six consecutive WorldS- BK Championships will always be the most obvious highlight of my time with Kawasaki, but it will also be the amazing memories, the life lessons, and the laughs that I will take with me into the future. This is not a goodbye because you don't say goodbye to family, but it is simply the end of this incredible chapter." Shortly after the Kawasaki release, the Yamaha welcoming announcement was made—and that was that. Rea now has a two-year contract with Yamaha, alongside existing rider Andrea Locatelli. It is not yet known when Rea will get his first ride on the Yamaha after he sees out the season on his Kawasaki. Gordon Ritchie WIND IN THE P34 Jonathan Rea dropped the biggest bombshell in WorldSBK for many years by announcing he'll leave KRT for Yamaha next year.

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